LEE Cook’s early strike earned Eastleigh a 1-0 victory at Torquay this afternoon that kick-starts the Spitfires’ Vanarama National League promotion chase.

With fellow play-off hopefuls Braintree and Dover both suffering defeat elsewhere, Chris Todd’s side are now two points off a top-five spot, writes Paul McNamara

“I believed we could win today and make it a good weekend,” said Eastleigh manager Todd, whose team played out a scoreless draw with Welling on Friday.

“It was a thoroughly professional away performance. We scored early and then held on for a long time. We were really controlled.

"The clean sheets are coming now, which is really pleasing. If we can build on those then we’re a force.”

The decisive goal at Plainmoor arrived on four minutes. James Constable was sent tumbling to the floor by Ben Gerring as the striker chased a Joe Partington pass down the right wing.

Cook sent the resulting free-kick low into the box, with goalkeeper Brendan Moore reluctant to dive for fear of any one of the advancing Constable, Partington or Yemi Odubade applying a touch.

As it was, the ball drifted, unmolested, inside the keeper’s right-hand post.

Constable was soon looking to exploit Gerring again, latching onto Jai Reason’s clever ball over the centre half to deliver a cross that was hacked away from in front of Odubade by Aman Verma.

Cook’s dead-ball sorcery then had Moore flapping, the attacker’s right-sided corner evading the Torquay stopper on its way to the back-post, where Partington couldn’t make sufficient contact to force the ball home.

The hosts immediately sprung onto the counter, with Ross Flitney saving at the feet of Andre Wright after the powerful forward had burst away from Dan Harding.

Partington’s fearless tackling, the Spitfires right-back emerging on top from two ferocious midfield confrontations in succession, set up Josh Payne for an audacious 35th-minute effort from halfway that, if it had been an inch lower, would have embarrassed Moore.

Torquay emerged from their attacking shell just before the interval. Wright’s driven cross narrowly evaded a lunging Nathan Blissett, before Fltney pawed away Blissett’s header from a Daniel Racchi corner – with Luke Coulson on hand to avert Angus MacDonald’s volleyed follow up.

Paul Reid and Jamie Turley blocked drives from Sam Chaney and Josh Rees, respectively, immediately after the break.

And with the hosts’ intensity increasing, Blissett seemed certain to score when he drifted inside Harding to meet Dan Butler’s vicious left-wing delivery. The forward’s glancing contact on his diving header, however, carried the ball wide of Flitney’s left post.

MacDonald nearly scored a crazy own goal when a bout of Eastleigh pressure ended with the home skipper horrendously slicing an attempted clearance and grateful for his fellow defender Gerring’s header off the line.

Trying his luck at the other end, MacDonald’s well hit 25-yard strike had Flitney sprawling to tip around his left post.

Constable, whose display Todd would later describe as "brilliant", thumped over from distance following another Gerring slip. The outstanding striker then provided Michael Green with a gilt-edged chance to wrap up victory, only for the substitute to skew his shot away from goal.

With such a slim advantage Racchi’s late, rasping, dipping effort had Spitfires’ hearts in mouths. But the midfielder’s strike was a yard too high and Todd was able to reflect on a satisfying bank holiday weekend.

He said: “We have to keep our feet on the ground because there’s going to be a lot of twists and turns, but we have given ourselves a great chance now.

“We have to keep digging in, working hard and, most importantly, stay in contention right until the last game.”